


Part of Me

by Amedia



Category: The Rat Patrol
Genre: Archaeology, Books, Gen, Prompt Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-12
Updated: 2019-05-12
Packaged: 2020-03-02 07:00:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 231
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18806089
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Amedia/pseuds/Amedia
Summary: Reading Professor Moffitt's book has changed Tully's view of the desert.





	Part of Me

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by one of theemdash’s responses to my request for ficlet prompts, which came in the form of Wizard Rock lyrics by Lauren Fairweather: “You’ve become a part of me/ And I take you wherever I go.” In context, the words are about how having read Harry Potter has affected the song's narrator for life. I was really struck by Lauren's idea of how some books stay with you and transform the way you look at the world thereafter, so that's what this little story is about.
> 
> First published on DW/LJ on May 12, 2019.

Dinner was over. Half of the Rats were preparing their bedrolls for a well-earned sleep. But Hitch, who had first watch, noticed that Tully was still up. His fellow private was sitting quietly, his chin resting on one drawn-up knee, and looking out over the moonlit desert landscape. 

“Whatcha lookin’ at?” Hitch asked. “There’s nothin’ out there.”

“That’s what you think,” said Tully. “I’m seein’ Roman soldiers and Arab warriors and caravans of spices … it’s all out there, just under the sand.” He waved in the general direction of the desert. “You remember I read Professor Moffitt’s book?” 

Hitch nodded. Tully had been unusually loquacious in support of rescuing Moffitt’s father, citing his admiration of “a man who could write a book like that” or some such.

“You see,” said Tully, “once I read about all those roads he discovered, like a big ol’ web across the desert, and all the ideas he had about the people who built them and the people who used them and the people who helped him dig them up … well, the desert just didn’t seem so empty anymore.” He reflected for a moment. “I don’t think it ever will. A book like that … it stays with you.”

Hitch wondered what it would be like to have a book change the way you looked at the world. “Hey, Tully,” he said. “You still got that book?”


End file.
